Food and Cooking Magazines You Still Subscribe To

[weinoo]

Back in the day, I must've gotten 10 different food and/or cooking mags a month. Some are no longer possible to get (RIP, Gourmet), others I can't be bothered with.

 

But I still get, on a monthly or every other month basis, a few of the old stalwarts.

 

Including, but not necessarily limited to (due to memory issues at this hour):

 

Bon A

Saveur

Cook's Illustrated
Fine Cooking

Food & Wine

 

What's in your mailbox? And what have you given up?

[lindag]

I've given up most of mine.  But CI and CC are still a must in my house.  I also like Food Network Magazine (much more there than you'd think when you think of the Food Network!)  I also like Taste of Home, it's so much better than it was years ago.

[rotuts]

only Fine Cooking.  im a big fan of their ' mix and match ' items, when they offer them

 

ie  a basic Rx is offered and illustrated on how to cook.

 

then various groups of items are shown :  you make the basic Rx 'your own' by choosing 2 from A, 1 from B, 3 from C etc

 

it gets me thinking of flavor combinations.

 

the Test Empire I look at from the library, as im opposed to Stealing Content, even if you Steal from Yourself.

 

'Pork Chops -- Best Ever  # 374 Rx '  gets dull

[Alex]

I no longer have any subscriptions except for the Cooks Illustrated annual bound edition. However, Ms. Alex gets Food & Wine, Bon Appetit, and Eating Light. I don't read them cover-to-cover any more, but I might take a look at an interesting article or three.

[MattyC]

Used to get a lot of those older ones, but these days they just don't have the substance to hold up for me. Just recipes for the most part aren't enough for me anymore, I liked to be engaged with different things.

 

I just get the newer, and I guess more interesting ones - Lucky Peach I've been getting since the beginning, and now I'm getting a new one called Cleaver as well, which is essentially like lucky peach, but just Chinese related things. Really fun mag, actually like it more than lucky peach to be honest, but it's really new, and only on it's 3rd issue I think, so very early on, and hard to find in the US (It's in english though).

 

I get Plate, but that's only because they mentioned me in a few, and it's free. It's not bad actually - has some cool stuff, just a little closer to the old ones in terms of layout and substance. Don't think I'd get it if it wasn't free.

 

The old guard just aren't interesting enough these days.

[rotuts]

MC :  I see you are in JP !

 

cleaver looks interesting.  is it in any of the local bookstores for a peak ?

[Lindacakes]

I subscribe to Saveur and I buy Lucky Peach now and again off the newsstand.

 

I don't think I will renew my subscription to Saveur.  It's horrible since James Oseland left.  

 

I am interested in James Oseland's new magazine.

[MattyC]

MC :  I see you are in JP !

 

cleaver looks interesting.  is it in any of the local bookstores for a peak ?

 

I sure am! And  Cleaver is real cool - I actually talked to the guys over at cleaver a few months ago, helping them find some places around Boston to distribute. Porter square books should have just picked them up. That's the only place in New england actually you can snag it, other than ordering.

 

If people like lucky peach though, it's actually very similar in art style and how it's put together - just all Chinese oriented. I found it online last year, and ordered it on a whim, loved it.

Edited March 30, 2015 by MattyC (log)

[Toliver]

...I also like Taste of Home, it's so much better than it was years ago.

And I feel the opposite it true. It used to be good and then changed for the worse so I stopped my subscription.

I also subscribe to Food Network magazine (it was a gift subscription), Southern Living magazine just for the recipes, and Louisiana Kitchen & Culture magazine.

I stopped my Bon Appetit subscription some time ago. I guess we grew apart. 

[rotuts]

MC : ordered the # 4 issue on line to give it a peek !

 

thanks

[gfron1]

I am in the process (again) of giving up on Saveur. Food and Wine I tried to like again but can't get into it. The only magazine that I still devour when it arrives (although not really in the same category) is Art of Eating.

[IowaDee]

Saveur  Has ups and downs but still worth it to me. Like the travel and food articles from different cultures alot.

Lucky Peach since the first one.  Think this may be a good investment! Pre order from Amazon and save some bucks.

C.I. but it is starting to wear a tad thin.

Food Network, don't mock it tell you try it.

Sunset, recipes never let me down nor do the cookbooks

Fine Cooking- Tauton Press does a good job on all their publications.

When Gourmet went under the rest of my sub. was filled by Bon Appetit.  I dislike one of the editors so intensly that I never renewed.

I also pick up copies of the Edible publications whenever I can.  Wonderful magazines and beautifully done.

[Arey]

Cooks Illustrated. (I rarely cook recipes from the magazine since as a senior citizen living alone there's a limit to the number of utensils and ingredients I'm willing to use to achieve the perfect glass of tap water.)

Every Day Food (it was basically simplified recipes from Martha Stewart Living. When Martha's empire stopped publishing it, instead of offering refunds they switched Every Day Food subscriptions over to Martha Stewart Living. I wouldn't have minded so much if they'd sent it in a plain brown wrapper.)

Edited to add that the list would be much longer if I included the magazines I leaf through while in the checkout line at Bon Terra Market.

Edited March 30, 2015 by Arey (log)

[Okanagancook]

I subscribe to Saveur and I buy Lucky Peach now and again off the newsstand.

 

I don't think I will renew my subscription to Saveur.  It's horrible since James Oseland left.  

 

I am interested in James Oseland's new magazine.

Organic Life is James Oseland's new magazine.  I just got a two year subscription for $30 Cdn with free shipping.  Must be an introductory offer.  Here is the website.  Looks very interesting.

 

http://www.rodalesorganiclife.com/organiclifemagazine/index

 

I subscribe to BA but I am growing tired of it.  Not a lot of interesting content besides recipes which I already have plenty of.  I also get Fine Cooking which I am or a fan of the reasons rotuts mentions.

 

I used to CI but now I just have a couple of their books on Meat, one on Poultry and one of the 'Best New Recipes" which work well for me.  Before I got Eat Your Books I had trouble finding recipes in magazines but with EYB it would be a breeze.

[Lindacakes]

Hmmmm.  I don't know, that looks a little Zen and the Art of Following Trends to me . . . 

 

I used to pour over an issue of Saveur, read every word, take notes, cut things out.  Now I just flip through it and put it in the trash with a sigh.

[Okanagancook]

Well, we shall see. I am looking forward to the gardening section for sure.

[gfweb]

BA  &  F&W. But I'm tearing out fewer and fewer recipes.  Don't know if they have changed or I have.

 

Saveur

 

CI.  But its soooo formulaic.

[btbyrd]

I subscribed to Cook's Illustrated for five or six years, but after the fifth or sixth "best way to make a pot roast" or "the very best roast chicken," it started to lose its appeal. I still enthusiastically recommend it to less advanced cooks. And I'd bet that the bound volumes and the recipe anthologies are great resources to have on hand (though I don't have them).

 

And I liked the earlier editions of Lucky Peach, but they seem to have mostly abandoned the long-form articles in favor of interviews and 2-page fluff pieces. There's a lot of content, but not much I care to read. It has become less literary and more a chronicle of random bits and bobs. I still like it more than any other food magazine that I've read, but I'm not in love with it like I was when I first picked it up.

 

Aside from these, I haven't found a food magazine that I really like. I'm really interested in hearing other eGullets' opinions on this topic. I'd love to find some more food related periodicals that I could look forward to each month.

[djyee100]

My Saveur subscription expired last year and it took me six months to notice. A pile of unread magazines still sits on one of my bookshelves. A far cry from the first time I read Saveur, issue #18, while waiting in my dermatologist's office. I loved the magazine so much I stole it. That issue is also on my bookshelf, a nostalgic reminder.

 

My other subscriptions, Food & Wine and Bon Appetit, also CI, have drifted away over the years. I don't miss them.

 

I haven't seen the new Saveur, post-Oseland, but this discussion makes me realize that I've changed. I do not need more recipes from a magazine. Ever. I have enough recipes in cookbooks and clippings to last me and anybody else for the next 100 years. Likewise, food ethnography and food memoirs have palled. I still have an interest in ethnography and memoirs, but the sense of exploration is gone.

 

These days I rely on websites and email newsletters for food news and recipes, all local to the Bay Area: SF Eater for food trends and new restaurants, SFist also, Janet Fletcher's Planet Cheese because I'm a cheesehound, CUESA for artisanal foods and sustainability issues. My interests are tilting more and more to sustainability and public policy around food. Well, I can't ignore climate change and the painful drought here in California.

 

I do pick up Edible East Bay when I see it around, and I enjoy reading that. But that's the only food-related magazine I'm willing to spend time with these days.

[hathor]

I'm too nomadic for paper magazine subscriptions to be practical, but I do subscribe to Lucky Peach and Fool

Cherry Bombe intrigues me, but it's too expensive ($20 bucks an issue!)

 

I'm in djyee's camp: I prefer online publications. Multi-media options, no paper or transport so it feels greener etc etc. 

Lucky Peach made a big deal out of being a print only mag, and as of last month, they also have a digital version. 

 

General question: what sort of format would you enjoy in an online magazine? Do you want to flip pages like a magazine? (example: New Yorker magazine)

Does that not matter, and you don't care if it looks like a website? 

Is the whole idea of an online magazine confusing or irrelevant? 

I'm asking because I'm working on a project that will be an online quarterly Digest, single themed and we're in the thick of discussions about layout, usage etc. 

Any insight would be greatly appreciated! 

[ElsieD]

I get

Food Network

Fine Cooking

Cooking Light

Ricardo (a Canadian publication)

Taste and Travel (another Canadian publication)

Used to get

CI

SAVEUR

Cuisine at Home

BA

Epicurious until it folded

Food & wine

Edited March 31, 2015 by ElsieD (log)

[rotuts]

This is a back note :

 

I did get Lucky Peach for one year, based on some rec's here

 

I found it interesting, but not for me, all things considered.

 

so thanks to this thread, I decided to look in my library system

 

an exceptional one  

 

and indeed two libraries get this 

 

this type of Pub.  is ideally suited to a library system .....

 

Peacher's  please look away.

 

if Cleaver looks good enough

 

Ill use my extensive influence

 

to see if a library in my system might be interested.

 

I'll add as much Rhum as it takes to those brownies.

 

its not that I cant afford  $ 60 / year for 4 pubs

 

but its a lot better to put that 60 / year into a library system

 

for 3 - 4 more people

 

who would never subscribe.

Edited March 31, 2015 by rotuts (log)

[fyfas]

• Bon Apetit
• Food & Wine
• Louisiana Cookin'
• Louisiana Kitchen & Culture
• Fine Cooking
• Saveur
• Cook's Illustrated

Some read porn;  for me cooking and wine publications are my porn.  Oh, and I particularly like Cajun and Creole food hence the two Louisiana publications.

 

 

[gfweb]

I'm too nomadic for paper magazine subscriptions to be practical, but I do subscribe to Lucky Peach and Fool

 

General question: what sort of format would you enjoy in an online magazine? Do you want to flip pages like a magazine? (example: New Yorker magazine)

Does that not matter, and you don't care if it looks like a website? 

Is the whole idea of an online magazine confusing or irrelevant? 

I'm asking because I'm working on a project that will be an online quarterly Digest, single themed and we're in the thick of discussions about layout, usage etc. 

Any insight would be greatly appreciated! 

 

Flipping pages online is a needless PITA. All those "reader" programs are hideous at best.

 

For reading...really reading...layout should be traditional print-ish without all the clickbait/links that distract and irritate. They are tolerable on a website but not in something that is meant to be read and savored.

 

Online magazines can be done well, I think. The trick is to minimize clicks and distractions...eg make an illustration appear without a click. Anything integral to the piece should just appear as it would in a magazine. If you want to link a reference, fine; but not a table or a photo.

[JoNorvelleWalker]

I am a convert to Flipster:

 

http://flipster.ebsco.com/category-detail/category/food-cooking

 

 

Particularly on my iPad, as there is an iOS app.  With the app the magazines are prettier than print.

 

The only problem, the ads are so gorgeous you want to look at them.